Geisinger Health System

About Geisinger Health System

Geisinger Health System provides health care to a large portion of the Keystone State. The health care system serves more than 2.6 million residents of nearly 45 counties spanning central and northeastern Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915, the organization's flagship facility is Geisinger Medical Center, a 400-bed medical-surgical hospital located in Danville. – more...It includes the Janet Weis Children's Hospital. With joint venture partner HealthSouth, Geisinger also runs a rehabilitation hospital in Danville. As part of its operations, the health system runs the 240-bed Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, as well as numerous outpatient facilities and doctors' offices located throughout the region.

Geographic Reach

Geisinger Health System extends the reach of its health care system to millions of central and northeastern Pennsylvania residents across about 45 counties.

Strategy

Geisinger Health System has been working to standardize its procedural operations to improve the quality of care at its facilities and cut costs. Initiatives include assigning care coordinators and providing home visits for high-risk patients to avoid repeat hospitalizations. The health network also implemented an electronic medical records system and began using networking technology to reach into rural markets. Known as "telemedicine," the system's networking technologies are used, among other things, to facilitate remote two-way consultations between system physicians and rural patients. It's working to deepen these capabilities through partnerships, such as its pending alliance with Lewistown Hospital that it inked in late 2012. The pair is exploring ways to expand their existing hospitalist, tele-stroke, tele-echo, and eICU programs at the hospital. Additionally, Geisinger runs the Geisinger Health Plan, a not-for-profit HMO with some 230,000 members.

In addition to its clinical operations, Geisinger Health System also pursues industry partnerships and licensing opportunities through its Geisinger Ventures, its business development unit. The unit works to commercialize (and sometimes spin off) medical and technology-related innovations.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Geisinger has grown through several strategic acquisitions in 2012. The health care system bought Shamokin Area Community Hospital, a 100-year-old, 55-bed, acute care hospital that had been struggling financially. In another deal, worth some $160 million, Geisinger acquired Community Medical Center to not only boost its presence in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but to enhance clinical programs, increase physician recruitment, improve facilities, and implement electronic health records at the center. It later renamed the hospital Geisinger-Community Medical Center. Now named Geisinger-Bloomsburg Hospital, Geisinger also acquired nearby Bloomsburg Health System in 2012. As part of the purchase, Geisinger plans to integrate Bloomsburg Physician Services into Geisinger Clinic and Columbia Montour Home Health into Geisinger Community Health Services. – less